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Saturday, May 21, 2005

For quite a while now I've been wondering why there isn't more pressure on Syria to discontinue its flagrant support for terrorism in Iraq. Syria is instrumental to the insurgency American and Iraqi forces are fighting day in and day out. Dear Baghdad has an interesting post on the subject from the 17th.

The Ba'ath Party in Iraq was toppled two years ago and is now engaged in an increasingly violent insurgency against what they call the "American Occupation." In Syria, the Ba'ath is intact, it is the sole entity that makes policy, policy that seeks to control neighboring Lebanon, policy that supports terrorists in the Palestinian territories, and most visibly, policy that provides funds for the insurgency in Iraq.

On May 11th Dear Baghdad had another great post on the excessive loss of lives in Iraq due to the insurgency.

The fact that we are constantly hit by numbers have simply destroyed our sense of humanity. When a bomb goes off somewhere in Iraq, we ask, "how many were killed?" 1, 2, 5, 17, 60, 400 or whatever. We cannot ask "who was killed?" Who was killed? Was it a father who was standing in line to sign up for the police department? His son or daughter will have to go to bed tonight knowing that "daddy" will never come home again. His widow has to not only come to terms with the loss of her husband but she also is confronted with the harsh fact that she has to raise her kids alone in the not-so-kind place called Iraq.

Who was killed? Was it a young man who happened to be at the market when the bomber decided that it was time for him to go? What was his name? Did he have dreams of a prosperous Iraq where we would start worrying about soccer and girls and a job and a car and a family? All of that is gone, he's dead.

I consider Syria's actions against democracy in Iraq acts of war. It needs to stop and it needs to stop now. Currently Syria has a lot to lose should there be a successful democracy in Iraq. They aren't losing anything by funding and supplying the insurgency in Iraq. There needs to be consequences. Syria needs to be experiencing losses that far exceed whatever they fear from freedom in Iraq. Syria needs some motivation to stay the hell out of Iraq.

Why aren't more people addressing this? Syria is contributing to the deaths of American soldiers. Is that not newsworthy?